With Obama Win, Elation and a Lingering Divide

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Celebration in Harlem

A center of black culture and history, the New York neighborhood of Harlem welcomed the news that Barack Obama had been elected the first black president with a loud celebration.

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"I always believed Obama would win," said Rob Owens, 47, the night manager at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and an early Obama supporter. "I was with him from the very beginning, since Iowa. It was his message that touched me."

As the key state of Pennsylvania went Obama's way, Elton Bates, 46, said, "It's history, no question about it."

Bates said, "We're at a point of time in history when there's a significant portion of the white majority comfortable with electing a black candidate."

Outside Sylvia's Also, a group of ice sculptors was busy carving Obama's name out of huge blocks of ice.

Thousands more Harlemites, other New Yorkers and foreign tourists packed the plaza to watch CNN on a huge screen. When Ohio was called for Obama, there was a roar and a long chant of "O-ba-ma!" and "Yes, we can!" to the beat of bongo drums. The chant quickly turned to "Yes, we did!"

"It's a beautiful affair!" said Andre Griffith, 54, who had spent most of the afternoon and evening at the plaza to watch the returns come in. "People all around the world wanted to see him win."

As evidence, one group held aloft a makeshift banner that said, "France For Obama."

"It's amazing," Griffith said, shaking his head in incredulity. "It's an historic event."

But across the Appalachian Mountains, at Toot's, a roadhouse-style bar south of Nashville in Murfreesboro, Tenn., cheers and boos erupted as the results came in.

Ken Lipham, a 58-year-old home builder and Army veteran, said he and his family had come to the party because "the food's cheap, the beer's cheap and we get to see the election." A McCain supporter, he did not expect the night to end happily.

By the time CBS's Katie Couric called Ohio for Obama, he and his sons, Andy, 32, and Matt, 34, were already resigned to McCain's defeat. "How can we vote someone into office we don't know anything about?" said Andy, who worries Obama may secretly be a Muslim and may not be a U.S. citizen. "I don't trust him, and all the personal relationships he has."

That's when his father -- who said he shared the same doubts about Obama -- broke in with a little perspective. "It doesn't matter who wins the election. Democrat or Republican, it's still America," he said. "You have to be supportive of the U.S."